Blueberry Streusel Scones

You feel that? There's that chill in the air. No matter how much I enjoy baking, feeling that incredible calm that comes with mixing batter, rolling dough, and measuring out ingredients juuust so, the thought of heating up the kitchen when the sun is blazing outside seems absolutely cruel to me. There's no doubt about it, my poor oven ( my best friend come the winter time) gets neglected, alienated, abandoned during the balmy summer months. It's right when that first chilly September day hits that I feel the itch. Like some invisible force pulling me to my oven, I can't help but start daydreaming about all the delicious baked goods I can begin to create come the chilly Fall and Winter months. So when that first cool day arrived a few weeks ago (oh man this post is overdue!) I couldn't help but bring out the flour, sugar, measuring cups and so on, to make a late afternoon treat, Blueberry Streusel Scones.

I have tried making scones years ago and other than my yummy Berry Scones, they have always been a failure as I seemed to enjoy mixing the dough so much, I would always be left with dry and crumbly scones once I removed them from the oven. The trick is to handle the dough as little as possible. With this trick in mind, I adjusted the Blueberry Streusel Scone recipe I found from JoyofBaking.com ever so slightly, merely changing the directions and not the ingredients. To my delight, my scones ended up having the perfect texture! Light, moist, with a slight crumble, enough sweetness to eat on their own, but only just enough so that they wouldn't be too sweet if anyone wanted to spread their with jam. They were exactly the type of baked treat I needed on that chilly day to put a mile on my face despite the weather making me feel blue.

Recipe from joyofcooking.com.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk or cream + more for brushing

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Gently fold in the blueberries. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture.

2. In a small bowl combine the cream, beaten egg, and vanilla. Add this mixture to the well in the flour mixture and, using a spoon, stir just until dough comes together. Using clean hands, knead the dough 4 or 5 times right inside the bowl, scraping up any leftover flour mixture at the bottom of the bowl.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat dough into a circle that is about 7-inches round and about 1 1/2-inches thick. Divide the circle into 8 triangles. Place scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Brush the tops with milk or cream.

4. In a small bowl prepare the streusel topping. Whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Using clean hands add the butter and begin mixing together until mixture is crumbly. Top each scone with streusel mixture and bake for about 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a scone comes out clean.

Listening To:

LANA DEL REY-BLUE JEANS

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